How Much Do You Pay Per Attraction at Magic Kingdom?
During the big data era, analysts have tried to quantify everything imaginable.
Meanwhile, as Disney theme park fans, we’re always wondering whether we’re getting the best value during a visit.
Questions have arisen in the wake of Disney’s many recent price hikes. Are we still getting good value during our Disney vacations?
Today, we’ll evaluate the most popular theme park in the world. How much do you pay per ride at Magic Kingdom?
Photo: Wikimedia
About Magic Kingdom Admission
Disney has changed its pricing policy in recent years. Nowadays, Disney theme park admission tickets vary in price depending on your visitation date.
Also, Disney encourages guests to stay longer by lowering the daily average price on multi-day ticket purchases.
At Magic Kingdom, ticket prices start at $124 in 2023. The high end of prices occurs during the busiest times like Christmas Week. It’s $189 for a one-day ticket.
Let’s presume for the sake of this study that you’re spending one day at each theme park. As such, you’ll need a four-day ticket to Walt Disney World.
I went ahead and chose a date that falls in the middle of Disney’s pricing. This ticket costs $136 per day. So, we’ll use that as a baseline.
On the day you visit Magic Kingdom, you’ll spend $136 plus tax. Our friends at MickeyTravels almost certainly could find a better deal.
Please keep that in mind when you’re ready to book. Their services are free to you, and they are Diamond earmarked, meaning they’re at the top of the Disney vacation food chain.
Anyway, we’re paying $136 to visit Magic Kingdom, a park that hosts a large number of attractions. The exact number varies depending on what you count.
Photo: Disney
I went through all the offerings at Magic Kingdom and settled on 42 experiences, including a few character greetings.
This number will increase by one when Tron Lightcycle Power Run opens, but it’s a fair baseline.
Photo: Disney
Determining Costs
Here’s the challenging part of the exercise. Yes, Disney hosts 42 experiences, but you cannot possibly do all of them in one visit.
You’ll occasionally watch some YouTube daredevil ride everything at Walt Disney World in a single day.
Disney After Hours
Usually, that person qualifies as a Disney expert AND uses some special option like an after-hours event or Disney’s 24-hour park day they sometimes offer.
You’re on vacation and don’t want to push yourself that hard, right? Exactly.
So, we could say that you’re paying $136 for the opportunity to experience 42 attractions.
Photo: skillastics.com
That’s a ridiculously low price of $3.24 per attraction. Unfortunately, it’s wildly misleading, though.
Over the past few years, I’ve attended Magic Kingdom during a Disney After Hours on a rainy night. And I’ve also done a VIP Tour.
Photo: Disney
In both instances, our number of experiences fell into the 15-20 range. That was with our having optimal conditions during our visit.
Still, I don’t think that’s completely fair as an assessment, either. The VIP Tour stopped after eight hours, while Disney After Hours lasted either four or five hours.
Photo: Disney
Magic Kingdom often remains open for 14 hours, which provides you with substantially more time.
The other x-factors here are Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane. Ostensibly, you could buy a Lightning Lane for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for $15-$20.
Photo: Disney
Similarly, a day’s use of Disney Genie+ costs about $20 these days. By purchasing these upsells, you would enhance your visit.
However, you’ve also increased the cost by as much as 30 percent, which would defeat the purpose of this exercise.
Photo: Center Watch
For this reason, we’re assuming standard line queues only.
A Reasonable Park Day
I had friends at Walt Disney World last week and another going for the first time this coming week. (They booked with MickeyTravels, by the way. I practice what I preach.)
Photo: orlandoattractions.com
In each instance, I told the people that their number of attractions would vary wildly.
One group is an older couple whose children weren’t traveling with them. The other is a parent of two smaller children.
Photo:Disney
Realistically, when you’re going to the parks with your kids, they will push you harder since they want to do everything.
Meanwhile, a couple, especially one that has visited Disney many times, won’t have as aggressive an itinerary.
Photo:Disney
In short, everyone’s different. There’s no way to say how many experiences you should expect to complete during a park visit…but I’m gonna do it anyway.
Presuming that you spend most of the day at the park and know what you’re doing, you should manage 15-18 experiences.
Photo: Disney
I’d wager you’ll do about twelve themed rides and then a handful of other character interactions, shows, and boat/railroad-style transportation.
Disney used to warn Disney Genie+ users that they’d max out at eight experiences, but I always felt that was low.
Photo: Disney
The key involves picking attractions with shorter wait times in addition to the must-dos. If you read our Wait Time articles, you can quickly identify those.
Also, you can stretch your number a bit by doing Rope Drop and also staying until closing.
Magic Kingdom Rope Drop
Those are the two times during a park day when Magic Kingdom is emptiest.
How Much Do You Pay Per Ride at Magic Kingdom?
Okay, $136 for the visit buys you 15-18 experiences. So, we can conclude that you’re paying somewhere between $7.56 and $9.07 per attraction.
Photo: Vecteezy
Remember that those numbers go down with each Disney experience you check off your list.
Let’s say that you manage 20 experiences. That drops the price to $6.80!
Photo: Getty
In fact, let’s call the range anywhere from $6.80 to $9.07. In that case, the average guest would pay about $7.94 per ride.
If anything, I suspect that number is a bit high. The last time I outlined this same idea, the price was about $1.15 lower.
Of course, Disney has increased prices for several amenities since then.
Ergo, the discrepancy could represent Disney price hikes since the last time I tried this, which was before the pandemic.
Photo: Disney
Still, I think that a price under $8 per Disney experience represents solid value. After all, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t spend so much time at the parks each year!
What do you think, folks? Is $7.94 per Disney experience fair value? Let us know in the comments!
Photo: MickeyBlog
